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Hollywood Primary students hold early Anzac remembrance

Hollywood Primary School associate principal Fiona McBeath with students Amelie Sampson and Clair Bolton at the war graves cemetery. Picture: Jon Bassett.

THE eldest may be just a decade old, but Hollywood Primary School students still remembered those who fell on the Western Front in France in World War I 100 years ago.

“We learn that the spirit of Anzac is in everyone, and we should keep it alive because they fought for our safety and peace,” student Amelie Sampson (11) said.

Before autumn school holidays, Amelie, fellow student Claire Bolton (11) and schoolmates from all years had an Anzac Day service at the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in Karrakatta .

About 45,000 Australians were killed and about 124,000 wounded in the horrific trench warfare , fighting Imperial Germany from the Belgian coast, through northern France to the Swiss Alps between 1914 and 1918, including about 2000 killed at at Fromelles in 1916.

Many who returned wounded to WA were treated at Hollywood Hospital, and as late as 1920 would have been considered a war casualty if they died of their wounds.

The war graves cemetery near the primary school includes a row of soldiers and nurses from the 31 who died when Spanish flu struck the Fremantle-bound troopship HMAT Boonah at the end of the war in 1918.

“All years learn about (WWI), including the Light Horsemen and what life was like in the trenches,” associate principal Fiona McBeath said.

The classes included reading about the conflict, and writing poems or stories about what it would have been like to have been a solider, a nurse or a civilian.